Carolina is not an underdog, she is still the favorite for the silver in Sochi
it not like she fared worst in the GP, she medaled in both her events
if she wins Europeans it could give her moral boost going to the Olympics depends on how she skates there too of course

Carolina is not an underdog, she is still the favorite for the silver in Sochi
it not like she fared worst in the GP, she medaled in both her events
if she wins Europeans it could give her moral boost going to the Olympics depends on how she skates there too of course

Caro was injured enough to pull out of her own Nationals. I'd love for her to do well, but I'm not insane enough to bet on her when she has both an injury and a history of inconsistency.

And to this mandatory disclaimer I add these words of caution: don't tempt the fates.

Sky_fly20 can tell you all about that. For the last 2 years she proclaimed that Adelina Sotnikova would never skate back-to-back clean programs, that it would never happen. Guess who won Russian nationals last week thanks to two clean programs?

I'm just sayin'...

Eh? I read CarneAsada's disclaimer as a tongue-in-cheek remark to ward off those who would immediately swarm the thread for proclaiming such heresy (that Kostner or Asada could score so high). I'm not seeing it as a bold statement to tempt the skate gods.

^^^Duly noted, but it also applies to those proclaiming that Mao and Carolina are incapable of skating cleanly and will most definitely make mistakes. All I'll say is they are both due for a SOYL moment and they only have two or three competitions left to do it...it could happen.

Switching gears...

I think Carolina's "Scheherazade" is lovely as an exhibition piece...but I still think she should go back to Bolero. It was a more effective FS overall that scored very well even when she wasn't skating her best. I just keep thinking back to the hot mess that was COC and how without the jumps "Scheherazade" fell to pieces. Also, I want to see her ditch the 3S at the end. If landed, the effect would be awesome; but she seems to miss it every time. It's too risky. She should do a big 2A at the end instead...

Eh? I read CarneAsada's disclaimer as a tongue-in-cheek remark to ward off those who would immediately swarm the thread for proclaiming such heresy (that Kostner or Asada could score so high). I'm not seeing it as a bold statement to tempt the skate gods.

You know it.

Originally Posted by kwanatic

I think Carolina's "Scheherazade" is lovely as an exhibition piece...but I still think she should go back to Bolero. It was a more effective FS overall that scored very well even when she wasn't skating her best. I just keep thinking back to the hot mess that was COC and how without the jumps "Scheherazade" fell to pieces. Also, I want to see her ditch the 3S at the end. If landed, the effect would be awesome; but she seems to miss it every time. It's too risky. She should do a big 2A at the end instead...

She's landed the 3S on multiple occasions. She just needs to give herself more prep time. Even if it's a triple Salsplat, the effect can be tremendous as it was at WC 2013. Despite splatting, she won my admiration for attempting it in such a risky place. At the Olympics, I don't want to see skaters playing it safe.

Thanks for all your input. In skating terms "underdog" is not a bad term. It simply can be applied to a skater who is quietly training, not at the moment in the spotlight and just might have that unexpected skate of a lifetime. It's always a thrill when it happens, like Elizabeth Manley's skate at the Calgary Olympics. We all knew Liz could do it, but she had a tough road to get to the Olympics. She sure shone at the right moment. The competition for the ladies is really fierce, just like the men's. It will be exciting to see who steps-up-to-the plate.

There have been a lot of good points made on this thread and there seems to be quite a few underdogs/dark horses. I'm really hoping, for the sake of suspense, that all of these ladies (i.e. Sotnikova, Lipnitskaia, Wagner, Suzuki, Gold, Murakami) skate lights-out and make it a truly exciting competition!

I think that theory is only possible if all of these aforementioned skaters perform better than they ever had before. I think Mao's place on the podium is relatively safe as long as she doesn't repeat her Nationals performances. Wagner and Julia L have had solid performances during GP yet still fell behind Mao who wasn't perfect. Kostner is the only other one besides Kim and Mao who can still potentially medal with a few mistakes. All of the others would need a skate like Suzuki's nationals LP to be on the podium if the top three skate well.